Wow,

My last post during quarantine 2020 in July. I moved on to Dragon Age Inquisition after finishing up Dragon Age 2, but I wasn't expecting this big of a jump in gameplay and I had to jump off. I will get back to it, it was just sooo different from my expectations.

After that I installed Dead Space on my Xbox One and the jump in graphics is AMAZING. So I played through the game twice again for the last couple of achievements. 100%! Which is a big deal for me, considering the amount of time I usually have.

I restarted working in July, tried to keep going as I started teaching again in September, but they shut us down in October. We were allowed to restart for less than a month in November after which we got shut down again. Considering the state of mind I was in by then, I didn't really commit to playing any games seriously, but instead worked on our back-end system a lot.

Just before restarting teaching again in June, I played through the entirety of the Uncharted series and tried to finish up Final Fantasy 12 which I ended up sidelining for a while. I have now picked it back up and am about to finish it, but am cleaning up some trophies before I do so.

I am also halfway through Final Fatnasy 4 on Steam, but I think I'll play some action type game or shooter to offset the 100+ hour RPG I have been playing.

Going to try and allow myself some more free time from now on so I can play some of my crazy huge backlog. I just passed 2000 games on Steam!!

So, Quarantine! Trying to make the most of it by going through my backlog, especially the long sit-down games which I usually don't have time for. I already played through Dragon Age: Origins and am currently on the last quest in Dragon Age 2. I enjoy the nice new spiffy combat, the story-line and I bumped up the difficulty to nightmare pretty quickly after the first 5 battles or so. If you don't, it's all basic attacks and no need for any skills at all. Like I said, been having a blast.

Until this last quest, HOLY SHITBALLS WHAT'S UP WITH THE FUCKING DIFFICULTY SPIKE? Not fun anymore, they throw everything and the kitchen sink at you. 10+ enemies and the 1 in the middle can one-shot your entire party? The unfairness really gets to you. Then they spawn 10 more including assassins that can one shot anybody that is not a warrior. I could handle the spawn more enemies after a battle thing (which is one of the biggest criticisms) but this is just nuts. My ranged can't run anywhere, things spawning everywhere at anytime.

Whoever designed the last section did a suck-ass job! I hope i can still finish tonight and not rage-quit, so I can move on to Inquisition.

So I noticed that I was getting hand cramps and lasting pain after playing on my PC which I rarely get. Then I started to notice that it came from playing Overwatch. Because of the constant movement and the quick fast switching, my left hand was cramping up fast.

After looking up some solutions, I first tried connecting my PS3 move controller to my pc which did work but has my on-screen prompts constantly switching between ps3 controller buttons and keyboard prompts. That was a bit much.

I had to do a bit of digging to find a company called Splitfish. Although they seem to focus on the niche market of providing mouse-controls to the console market, they do have a controller called a fragchuck. Basically a move/wii controller for your pc for your left hand with enough buttons for all your regular controls.

I've had it for two days now and it performs exactly as expected. Together with my Steelseries Rival 500 mouse I have all the control I need to play Overwatch without the hand-cramps. It does need some getting used to since you need to create all new muscle memory because you're basically playing with half a controller and a mouse. But it works!

So if anybody is also looking for this solution, I hope this helps!

So Blizzard is releasing a paid DLC for Diablo 3 which contains the following:

New class: The Necromancer (yay!)

HD remake of the first Diablo

Now they have all the classes of the first Diablo and the entire game remade.

Logically thinking, next in line for paid DLC would be the classes of Assassin & Druid coupled with Diablo 2 remake. Or not?

Or Maybe Diablo 2 & Druid paid DLC 2

Throne of Baal & Assassin for the third DLC, just like the expansion.

Makes sense doesn't it?

I hope so!

This is a theme which I write on and off about since back in the day people were suggesting that you can't learn anything from video-games.

Team a-holes

Heroes of the Storm is my go-to game these days, because I just don't have the time to get lost in a video-game. Hopefully that will change in the future, but as it is now heroes is the perfect 20-minutes a game distraction.

The one theme that keeps coming back though is that when playing a 5 vs 5 game, a lot of the times there is an a-hole in your team. Although there are several different types of a-holes, they always end up the same: That player degrading and putting down everybody else in their team in the most insulting way they can think of at the time all in the vain of trying to lead/instruct you to become a better player. And whether you are winning or losing the round you're playing, it's never a satisfying experience.

I've had games where we were clearly on the losing end but as a team we were coming up with strategies to try and fend off the obviously superior team. That's satisfying, because you net small victories here and there even if you're losing that game.

On the other hand, I've won games where there was one team-mate barking orders, insults and being generally abusive to the rest of the team telling everybody they suck and that they didn't deserve to play at this level.

Not fun at all playing with that douche-bag, even though we won.

There was this one game where there were two types of "leaders". I picked the wrong build and the team's a-hole starts cussing me out incessantly. I usually reach for the mute-button quickly, but this time another player jumped in. He looked at my build and explained to me calmly why it was the wrong build. And it was, I just wasn't paying attention. I just jumped in for a quick game in between everything I had to do. (I had a lane-pushing build on a small map where we mostly had team-fights)

You know what happened? That shut the a-hole up for the rest of the match!

Lesson learned? An a-hole in your team will ruin the experience for everybody, whether you are successful at your task or not. And they will only do so if you let them. Also, if you look at their end-game stats, 99% of the time they are the worst or 2nd worst player in the game. All talk, no walk. And they will shut up if a real player/leader steps in. Don't let them get to you.

Know who you choose to be your team-mates....They make or break the experience.

I try to use this advice for my own company as well, especially now when moving forward into a new phase of growth. Actually, use this for Life.

In my previous blog I already talked about switching to the PC as my preferred platform and yesterday I got an email stating that my steam link & controller have been shipped! I am quite excited and have put off playing shadow of Mordor so I can play and complete it on the big screen in the living room. In the mean time I also upgraded my cpu to something of this generation proper and I also bought a new computer case, the Noctis 450 which I highly recommend. The thing looks bad-ass and is whisper quiet.

Looking back, there were a couple of things that have pushed me to the PC as my preferred platform. The first was nonsense exclusivity to the new generation consoles, PS4 & Xbox One. Why the heck is Transistor exclusive to the PS4? To get you to buy one, I understand. But there is no technical reason that game can't be on other and older platforms. I understand why Shadow of Mordor is a half-breed version on the PS3/XBOX360. That was annoying, which is why I went for the PC versions since I didn't want to jump into the new generation just yet. But transistor as a PS4 exclusive, other than it being a business deal makes no sense at all. Same goes for Ori and the Blind forest. No technical reasons for it not to appear on older consoles, which is why I bought it on the PC as well.

I'll surely jump into this next generation of consoles in the future, but for now I am banking on my PC. The next console I'll buys will probably be the Wiiu since their IP's still draw me in and all these Mario Maker stories have made me curious.

But for now, I'll be one of the many people making steam an even richer company.

Alongside my television is an Xbox 360, PS3 and a Wii and in the cabinet below my TV is a N64, a ps2 and an Xbox just in case I feel like playing some of the older games. I also have a Gamecube, ps1 and a dreamcast in my closet and also own a DS, psp an gameboy advance.

For years and years my system of choice has been the Xbox 360. This started with the Xbox as that used to have superior graphics when compared to the other systems. That's why I bought the 360 first and then I got invested in the Achievement system. If done well, it's really enjoyable to go achievement-hunting, although I don't have the time for it. I still bought the PS3 for the exclusive games.

But if that steam-thing works out to be good I think my system of choice will be my PC. After a little bit of a upgrade my PC should be able to chug along for a couple more years and I can get all the games including the indie games for cheaper than on the console.

So here's hoping Steam Link is a good thing!

(I'll still get the consoles, since I just can't help myself. Next up on my list is to get that PS Vita, since I got quite a couple of games for the vita through the crossbuy thing. After that, a Wii U for Zelda HD!)

I got some time off and been playing Diablo 3 again. I changed my witch doctor's build and only now is it working for me. And it got me thinking about what games are teaching me again.

I see analogies between the business I run and creating a build for a D3 character. And it goes like this:

Your business strategy come form an idea, a concept, you roughly work out those concepts and test them live. And you always, always have to iterate and change the ideas ever so slightly.

I usually start of new games playing barbarians. And in my last post I mentioned that I made the mistake of wanting a burly two handed Barb dishing out tons of damage, but what I actually wanted to do is jump into a crowd of monsters and whirlwind like crazy till they are all mush. Then the two handed idea conflicts with the fact that you are jumping into a ton of monsters that quickly turn YOU into mush. So just changing to a 1-handed/shield barb with some defensive skills have made him a powerhouse.

As a business owner you also have to know what resources you have and what they can do for you. My first D3 character was actually a monk and I got frustrated playing him and switched to a Barb. until I figured out that my problem was that I was treating my monk like a barb. A monk runs in dishes out tons of damage and then runs back out. He utterly destroys single targets, but has to manage the battlefield. You have to know what your resource can do for you.

More or less the same thing happened with my witch doctor, who is killing it now.

Then you take that knowledge and turn it into experience....

I will be creating a fire wizard next, but since he will rely on meteor as his main form of damage, I need to have frost nova to cc the monsters since the meteor strikes take time to hit. Originally I wanted to create an all fire wizard, but knowing how rules of the game (of life & business as well) I know beforehand what will be needed.

Knowledge = Power! (If turned into experience :))

On a side note, I was off yesterday, my girlfriend is outta town and I finished Tomb Raider in two sittings. I feel like I am 14 again. :)

Wow, Ryan's gone.

And the crazy part is the sense of loss I feel for somebody that I never met. But I've been listening to the podcast since it was still a skype call at arrow pointing down.

These guys not only keep me informed about videogames, they also keep me entertained and show me how to do what you love for a living, give it that personal touch and still keep it professional. The fact that Jeff & Ryan started GB after that catastrophe at Gamespot is inspirational to me in many ways and was a guideline when I had to decide whether or not to start a new company.

These two clips are the things that always get me laughing and these are just the ones I remember from the top of my head out of thousands of moments during many hours of podcasts. It also reminds me to enjoy life since Ryan was two years younger than me.

Just Ryan being Ryan: wtf are you saying!!!????

That first sentence together with his facial expression always gets to me: Fucking ridiculous.

RIP Duder, you enriched my life and are an inspiration.

Jason

Wow.

Before I start, I just checked the date of my last blog here: December 27th 2011. And there is a reason for that. In December of 2011 my then girlfriend, now ex-girlfriend, went on a Christmas cruise to the Bahamas. Due to Christmas I had a break from the company we ran together and I had 2 weeks time off, so I tried to catch up to all the games I really wanted to play.

Then work started again in January and it was a crazy month with a 5 year celebration of the company, which ended up being the last celebration of the company due to a really messy breakup in February. The rest of the year I was left finding my bearings and deciding what to do. I ended up starting a new company in the same industry. I started the new company while living with a friend, sleeping on the couch and also falling crazy in love with my new girlfriend. (This always happens to me btw, when I am not looking I meet somebody. But this girl really is something else) So now that everything is more or less stabilized, I have some more time to play games.

I did still buy Diablo 3 on launch day, but didn't have time to blow through it like I did with Diablo 2. I still played as much as I can, but between starting up the new company and wanting to spend time with my new girlfriend, I really didn't have a lot of spare time on my hands. Nonetheless, I do have a level 60 Monk, Barbarian & Wizard which I leveled in burst gameplay everytime I had an hour to spare. It's interesting to see how different these 3 classes play. I am currently working on a Witch-doctor and trying to get the achievement for leveling all 5 classes to 60. My monk used to be my main, but then I switched over to the Barbarian. I also have a Hardcore Barbarian, whom I have specced defensively, so I wanted this Barbarian to be an offense focused character. I also remember loving the whirlwind skill in Diablo 2, so I also wanted to make whirlwind the skill around which I build this Barb.

Getting the build to make this work though proved to be a challenge to me, mainly because I had the wrong mindset. When I first started playing Diablo 3 I still had the rule in my head from Diablo 2: Damage is King. Back in the day increasing your dps was all you would focus on. I made that mistake on my Monk too, until I started watching some Diablo 3 videos on youtube and noticed that at least half the skills these people were using were damage mitigation and crowd control. So I changed my Monk with this in mind and it worked! I switched over to my Monk again and played him way more than my Barb.

But the the fact that the Barb build was not working still annoyed me. The idea behind the Barb was that he would leap into a crowd of monsters and whirlwind around and massacre the group. I wanted to rely on two passive skills for this: Berserker Rage & Unforgiving. Obviously these compliment each other and greatly increase your damage output. The problem with this is that the active skills to mitigate damage just can't keep you alive when you jump into a big pack of monsters. In other words: I was STILL thinking the wrong way, namely the old way: Damage is King. Now of course it all makes sense, but it took me awhile, a lot of deaths and a lot of gold to repair equipment to realize that. Once I realized why exactly the build wasn't working, the first build I tried after that worked like a charm.

I have another personal blog where I used to talk about the good things games have taught me, like improving my command of the English language and I found myself thinking the same thing when I realized what I was doing wrong. Now that I realize what I was doing wrong with the build, it was easy to find a build that works. Looking back at my old relationship, I realized why the things that happened happened and why I never realized what was wrong with the relationship or what I could've and should've done. Basically the things that make me tick (my build :P) are not compatible with the relationship I was in. But I can only see that now that I am in a relationship where my build works. :)